Name: Salted Fish Fried Rice
Yield: 5
Ingredients: 2 tbsp cooking oil; 20 g minced garlic; 10 g red chopped chilli; 20 g chopped spring onion; 100 g salted fish; 100 g shredded chicken; 75 g bean sprouts; 1 cup (500 g) cooked jasmine rice; 1 tbsp salt; 1 tbsp fish sauce; 2 tbsp pepper

Why it works: Garlic and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,769 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Garlic + chickentop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,850 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).
Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Onion + chickentop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,814 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Salted fish: Adds concentrated savoury, salty flavour that seasons the whole dish.
Chicken: Provides protein and savoury body, browning slightly as it cooks in the hot pan.
Cooked jasmine rice: Forms the bulk of the dish, absorbing oil and seasonings as it is stir-fried.
Garlic: Releases aromatic compounds in hot oil, building the base fragrance of the dish.
Bean sprouts: Add a crisp, juicy texture that stays crunchy when added at the end.

The step that matters

Stir-frying the garlic, chilli, and spring onion. Minced garlic burns quickly in hot oil, and burnt garlic turns bitter. Keep the heat controlled and stir constantly for the full minute until it smells fragrant, not brown.

Swap the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, fish, chicken, jasmine, rice, fish sauce, pepper):

Garlicthe original
Gingerfits about as well
Turmericfits about as well
Corianderfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, fish, chicken, jasmine, rice, fish sauce, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Salmon	100g cooked	208
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Bean	not in our table	0

Salted Fish Fried Rice